1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to methods and systems for enabling communications between networked users. More particularly, the present invention relates to enabling anonymous communications between networked users based on common search queries.
2. Related Art
People search the Internet for resources related to a particular query. These resources include html pages, sound files, movie clips, pictures, scholarly articles, newsgroups, etc. Unavailable in this mix of resources have been the users themselves, who are potential sources of advice, companionship, expertise, etc. Up to now, there has been no simple way to enable communication among users who are searching for similar topics.
There are many ways to communicate with other users based on long-standing interest in a given topic, such as newsgroups, chat rooms, and the like. People using these modes of communication establish themselves via registration as a member of a certain group, chat room, or community. They may then communicate with others within that group.
There are also ways to communicate with other friends or associates via instant messaging applications. These applications allow users to communicate with other known users based on some sort of user identifier. But before the users can communicate, at least one user needs to know the other user. In other words, the users have to have contact before they can communicate. Additionally, each user has to be running an instant messaging application that can receive messages from other users. Due to proprietary communication protocols, most instant messaging applications will not interoperate with instant messaging applications from another vendor. This lack of interoperability has led to tremendous headaches for users, as they must use several different instant messaging applications to be able to communicate with different people. Another option is to use a single application that cobbles together the different protocols from different vendors. Unfortunately these applications frequently break and require updating due to changes in the protocols.
The prior art does not provide a way to connect, without registration of any sort, with others who are searching for a similar topic at approximately the same time. In the prior art, a person must be a member of a group or community to be able to communicate with another person or the identity of the receiving party must be known to the communicating party. In the prior art, people cannot connect on the Internet in an immediate and serendipitous way based on potentially transitory and fleeting interests. Prior art systems require a user to run standalone applications, register, or establish a profile.
The following United States Patents and patent applications describe various types of computer based systems related to networked communications and network search tools.
U.S. patent application No. US20020032735A1, titled, “Apparatus, means and methods for automatic community formation for phones and computer networks”, describes an automatic telephone, Internet or intranet community formation system that utilizes spoken words or matching search terms. The described system utilizes wireless and wired voice communications, database and list serve technology to archive and match users based upon their search terms entered into a telephone system or a search engine, Internet, intranet, extranet, local area network, wide area networked, wired, wireless or standalone computer. A community formation system refers to a means of inviting one or more persons to communicate via voice, email or other method and join in a discussion. Invitations to join would be sent via an email, SMS, instant messaging, phone, web browser, email or fax communication. The user would have control over whether s/he wanted to be invited into a community, the age of desired matches, the closeness or breadth of the matches, the duration of the community, and the type of community—voice or text. Also, users have the ability to a.) conduct joint searches and b.) jointly and severally rate the content information, websites, or other subjects, and c.) to pick settings to establish his or her actual identity or to adopt an anonymous identity. However, the described system requires user registration and/or custom software installation, does not provide firewall-friendly communication, and does not provide complete user anonymity.
U.S. patent application No. US20050102358A1, titled, “Web page monitoring and collaboration system”, describes an Internet system that includes a server that communicates with a web page including a universal resource locator address of an Internet based chat session, and allows each user visiting the monitored webpage to participate in the Internet based chat session. However, this system does not address the notion of connectivity based on similar search terms. It centralizes communication around a single web page (or web site) and does not describe a system that enables communication based on exact search terms or similar but not exact search terms.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,912,564, titled, “System for instant messaging the sender and recipients of an e-mail message”, describes a communication system for the transfer of email through mobile phones that automatically configures instant messaging communication between intended recipient and sender of email after determination of capable user. However, this system requires the users to know the identity of others users with whom they wish to communicate.
U.S. patent application No. US20040243580A1, titled, “System and method for message handling in a peer-to-peer environment”, describes an entity access method (e.g. for media items in peer-to-peer network) involving receiving a request including metadata corresponding to an entity seeking access to an entity. However, this system does not describe a method and system for enabling anonymous communications between networked users based on common search queries.
Thus, a computer-implemented method and system for enabling anonymous communications between networked users based on common search queries is needed.